The Eliot-Phelips Collection Project

Madrid

[Illustrated: Sanchez, Madrid en la mano (1763), Instruccion…para apagar y cortar los incendios que ocurran en Madrid (1789), Martinez de la Torre, Plano de la villa y corte de Madrid en sesenta y quatro láminas…(1800)]

The collection is particularly strong in material reflecting the social and economic history and urban development of Madrid, from the 16th century up to the early years of this century; it includes 'prematicas', laws, city ordinances, regulations of guilds, charities, montepios, etc., proposals for public works, plans, maps, street directories, guides, and histories. A special sub-category consists of a number of detailed proposals for improving the water supply to Madrid.

Newsletters, proclamations, ephemera

[Illustrated:Verdadera relacion de la entrada de el Principe Don Carlos de Inglaterra, en…Madrid (1623), Murat, Valerosos españoles. El dia dos de mayo, para mi como para vosotros, será un dia de luto (1808)]

Several bound volumes of early newsletters and similar documents have been discovered. One contains a comprehensive set of bulletins printed in Seville recording the visit of Charles I when Prince of Wales to Madrid in 1623, accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham, in pursuit of a Spanish marriage. Another volume contains over two dozen proclamations and 'bandos' published during the year 1808 by the Bourbon and Napoleonic authorities. Several 17th-century 'gazetas' unrecorded in Palau y Dulcet's Manual del librero hispano-americano (Barcelona, 1948, etc.) have also been identified.

Almanacs and guides

[Illustrated: Guia de forasteros para el año de 1865 (binding), Kalendario manual, y guia de forasteros en Madrid, para el año de 1794 (binding)]

This is a remarkable (and possibly unique) series of 167 official annual almanacs ('kalendarios') and 'guias de forasteros'. The earliest issue held is 1742. Several are in fine bindings: velvet, painted mica, etc.

Early Spanish book production

[Illustrated: Jacobus Philippus, Suma de todas las cronicas del mundo (1510), Mexia, Los dialogos o Coloquios…(1548), Castillo, Tratado de cuentas (1542)]

There are many examples of the work of early Spanish printers, including Arnao Guillen de Brocar, Pedro Madrigal, Luis Sanchez, Juan de Junta, and Juan de la Cuesta. Early provincial printers are also well represented. Up to July 1997, 139 items printed before 1600 had been catalogued, 195 printed between 1600 and 1699, and 316 printed between 1700 and 1830. The earliest imprint identified so far is 1510 (Jacobus Philippus, Summa de todas las cronicas del mundo, Valencia: Gorge Castilla). These items offer a remarkable cross-section of the printed books available in Spain at this period, from treatises on accounting, astronomy, handwriting, and cookery, to books of chivalric romances and love poetry, dictionaries of the Castilian language, and collections of emblems, riddles and humorous anecdotes. The development of Spanish printing and publishing in the eighteenth and nineteen centuries is reflected in the work of the official presses as well as of the Ibarras and other members of the Real Compañía de Impresores y Libreros, and in copies of decrees and other documents regulating the book trade.

Items for the Spanish book trade printed abroad

[Illustrated: Rojas, Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (Venice, 1531), Cancionero de romances…(Antwerp, 1568), La Marche, El cavallero determinado (Antwerp, 1591)]

There are several examples of books printed abroad for the Spanish market, primarily in Antwerp, Venice, and Amsterdam.

Illustrated books and prints

[Illustrated: Rodriguez, Coleccion general de los trages que…se usan en España (1801), Apian, Libro dela cosmographia (1548), Andres, Sumario breve d[e]la pratica dela arithmetica (1515)]

Many items are illustrated or decorated with woodcuts, copper- or steel engravings, or lithographs, some coloured. A bound set of A. Rodriguez's Colección general de los trages que en la actualidad se usan en España (Madrid, 1801), is one of the most comprehensive recorded, and there are also several unbound prints, including contemporary representations of the great fires of Madrid of 1631 and 1790. Some volumes contain well-preserved functioning volvelles.

Ephemera

[Illustrated: Relacion de como el pexe Nicolao agora se ha aparececido [sic] de nueuo en la mar…(1608), Aqui comiença vna obra…de los Mandamientos…(1607), Thomas de los Angeles, Relacion muy verdadera…la qual declara los enredos que hizo vna muger…(1608)]

Several rare or previously unrecorded broadsides, chapbooks and popular tracts have been catalogued so far, including some formerly in the Huth Collection.

Items from other notable collections

[Illustrated: San Felipe, Comentarios de la guerra de España (1725), Nola, Libro de cozina (1525), Perez de Hita, Historia de los vandos de los zegries y abencerrages cavalleros moros de Granada (1610), Olmo, Relacion historica del auto general de fe, que se celebro enMadrid…(1680)]

Other former owners identified so far include the Spanish statesman, Canovas del Castillo, Queen María Cristina of Spain, the Duke of Medina de las Torres, José Antonio Conde (Royal Librarian under Joseph Bonaparte), Lord Clarendon (British minister in Spain, 1833-39), and the noted collectors and bibliophiles William Fuller Maitland, Vicente Salvá, and Ricardo Heredia y Livermore.